Title
Authorizing the Committee on Public Health and Human Services to hold hearings to regarding the Medical Marijuana Act of Pennsylvania.
Body
WHEREAS, Last month, Governor Tom Wolf signed into law Act 16 of 2016 ("the Medical Marijuana Act"), complex legislation that principally creates a program for the use of medical marijuana to be administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Health with implications for citizens with covered conditions, their relatives and employers, potential market participants, such as doctors or dispensaries, and others throughout the City of Philadelphia; and
WHEREAS, The Medical Marijuana Act establishes a program for use of medical marijuana by patients with a "serious medical condition" which is defined as any of the following conditions: cancer, HIV/AIDS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with objective neurological indicated of intractable spasticity, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), neuropathies, Huntington's disease, Crohn's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), intractable seizures, glaucoma, autism, sickle cell anemia, and severe, chronic or intractable pain of neuropathic origin or severe or intractable pain in which conventional therapeutic intervention and opiate therapy is contraindicated or ineffective - a list which might be expanded by future state regulation; and
WHEREAS, Medical marijuana can only be administered to patients certified by a state-sanctioned practitioner in approved forms - pill, oil, topical forms, liquid, tincture, and medically appropriate vaporization or nebulization - possession of which by a patient or caregiver generally may not exceed a 30-day supply; and
WHEREAS, The Medical Marijuana Act provides that it is unlawful to smoke medical marijuana, to grow medical marijuana except by a state-approved grower/processor, or for dispensaries to sell medic...
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